If you want to know the true version for what eventually became the hit movie Dumb and Dumber, just read anything about the NHL team owners and their lockout of the players. The inspiration for the movie's title was actually based on the schmucks with the bucks. But money does not always go hand-in-hand with common sense.

The NHL owners demonstrated their gross underestimation of the players' resolve when they began the lockout. With the near cancellation of the season, the owners have shot themselves in the intestines, left to fester in a corner and suffer a slow and painful death.

A breakthrough season was within everyone's sights. The Stanley Cup Champions resided in New York, the nation's largest market. New teams thrived last year in non-traditional, southern hockey markets with the Florida Marlins and the Dallas Stars.

A perfect opening presented itself because of another surprisingly stupid move, the baseball strike. For sports junkies clamoring for a quick fix, hockey could have claimed many new addicts.

But then the owners grabbed a plastic bag and wrapped it around the head of the season, suffocating any hopes of success -- with brain-damaging results.

Issues like the salary cap (the owners agreed to go without one), free agency (the owners wanted unrestricted free agency at age 32 while the players felt 30 was reasonable; they settled on 32 for the next three years and 31 for the following three) and similar problems became stumbling blocks.

The players offered to negotiate during the season -- so it could start on time -- and pledged to play while negotiations took place. But the owners did not have enough confidence in the players' vow. With the season resting on the owners' shoulders, they buckled and, consequently, severely shortened the season.

This season will be tainted. With only a 48-game schedule, it will be even more of a joke than it usually is. In the past, teams only had to aim for one of 16 playoff slots --most of the games meant virtually nothing. Now, aging teams will be able to rest their star players in a last-ditch effort to claim the coveted Cup.

It truly would have been a disgrace if the season were canceled. The owners could never wash their hands of that dubious distinction. It would have been the first time a full season of one of the four major professional sports was not played. Even world wars have not canceled a season. Championship series have been wiped out, but never an entire season.

Maybe as NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman's season deadline approached, the owners realized what fools they had been throughout negotiations.

They finally took their heads out of their asses. With time slipping through their fingers, the owners fought through some difficulties to endorse a plan. The stain of a year without professional hockey rested on their consciences (and their money clips), so they decided they could make some concessions.

Both sides tried to bluff with "final offers," yet both haggled and made some compromises to get the season under way -- if the players decide to ratify the decision made by the union chiefs.

What puzzles me is why both sides didn't get down to business much earlier. More games equals more money, something both are looking for anyway.

Oh, well. Hockey's hockey. When I was coming back to school after break, I listened to a Buffalo, N.Y., radio program. The majority of the callers said they would not go back to watching hockey.

Fat chance.

I'm willing to bet, just like the owners and players, they'll head back to the rinks to see the game they love. It's too bad the owners forgot about that passion when they locked out the players.